by Elder Mike Chon
Life is uncertain. If you turn on the news today it won’t take too long to hear about all the events that no one could have predicted and all the different trials that people are facing today. You’ll definitely see the good, the bad, and the ugly in the news. Many times our personal lives seem as unpredictable as what we see on television. In a single day we can enjoy great happiness and in a moment experience the lowest of lows. Many of us live through life hoping and trying to avoid those disappointments or difficulties because we believe that avoiding these things will bring joy to our life. On the contrary, the Scriptures teach that we should consider it joy when we do face various trials in our life (James 1:2).
Why would Scripture teach us that we should consider it joy when we face these trials in our life? The reason is that God is using these trials to produce in us a spiritual change which results in being perfect and complete.(James 1:3-4) Our desire in this life is not to become comfortable but it is to become holy. If our joy is set on material things, our circumstances, or our health…we’ll interpret these difficult moments as obstacles that stand in the way of our joy. Instead we are to be concerned with those things that are eternal and find joy when we face trials since it will produce in us a greater faith, a greater trust, and a greater love for our Lord and Savior.
Even the apostle Paul understood this when he was given his thorn in the flesh. (2 Corinthians 12:7-10) After pleading three times with the Lord to remove this from him, Christ answered him with “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Again we see this perfecting work in the midst of a trial which God produces in us. The result for the apostle Paul was to state that he will boast all the more gladly of his weakness, so that the power of Christ may rest upon him. He was glad to boast about his weakness. Instead of it producing sorrow or anxiousness, Paul’s trial produced in him joy. His joy was found not upon his circumstance but instead knowing that through his circumstance that God is working in and through him. Even though the prayer was not answered the way that Paul wanted it to be, he found joy in knowing that God knows what is best for him. Paul found joy in the eternal and not the temporal.
A.W. Pink wrote concerning our expectations regarding prayer in the midst of trials:
“God’s answer is not always along the line that we think; how good for us that it is not. How little we are able to perceive what would be for our good. ‘We know not what we should pray for as we ought’ (Romans 8:26). Often we ask for temporal things, and God gives us eternal; we ask for deliverance, and He grants us patience. He does not answer according to our will but according to our welfare and profit. Hence we must not be disheartened if our requests are not literally answered. Sometimes God answers by reconciling our minds to humiliating trials. ‘My grace is sufficient for thee.’ Sufficient to support under the severest and most protracted affliction, to enable the soul to lie submissively as clay in the hands of the Potter, to trust His wisdom and love, to be assured that He knows what is best for us.”
The great joy of the Christian life is to know that God cares for us so much that he doesn’t allow us to believe that this earthly world is the best for us. He always wants what is best for us and at times that means that he may bring us through a difficult time to show us our need for him. “And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you.” (1 Peter 5:10)